US POLITICS election/post-election edition: your country will improve immediately.

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radical orgs like the american booksellers association were coordinating letter-writing campaigns

over 200 individual municipalities protested it, and this is well-documented

the idea that the political climate of post-9/11 excuses, explains, or otherwise justifies support for the total undermining of basic liberties assured by the constitution is ridiculous -- if these guys were suffering post-attack shock they might have maybe used their brains and said, jeez, you don't go fucking up 200 years of settled law just because your feeling of immunity from attack took a hit? like, otherwise, we're basically saying "the difference between our elected officials and some random hysterical asshole is...our elected officials ran for office"

honestly 99% of the actions of our elected officials immediately following 9/11 made me embarassed/ashamed for our country

You overrate the intelligence of your average legislator.

lol not any more I don't!

yes i am basically saying that

and again: we know from russ feingold that it didn't take some fuckin' einstein/superman hybrid to oppose this shit. it just took the teeniest tiniest bit of spine.

I'm confused by your reverence for Feingold above all others.

Name the senators who voted against the USA PATRIOT Act.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 9:25 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

Bernie Sanders voted against it as a congressman and surely would have as a Senator.

Yes. This was the time when the entire Congress recited the Pledge on the steps of the Capitol, remember?

― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 9:50 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

god, so much crazy shit that is easy to forget.

Apparently also easy to forget just how scaredy-cat your average U.S. citizen was immediately thereafter.

Never Forget.

the GOP dudes who voted nay are a weird group

Ney
Otter
Paul

isn't bob ney in jail?

bob ney also the guy behind "freedom fries", lol i never knew that.

Ugly guy too.

He looks like his blood is made of Hunt's Ketchup.

i still remember the friday following sept 11 in l.a., everywhere i drove people were out on the streets flashing peace signs and/or holding kill osama signs or and generally Rallying for America.

in that climate it was totally easy for people to get swept up onto the "kill everyone!" train

He looks like his blood is made of Hunt's Ketchup.

― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, November 2, 2010 10:02 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

probably related to the freedom fries decision.

His hair's the color of a cheese omelet.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/bob_ney_red_nr.jpg

in that climate it was totally easy for people to get swept up onto the "kill everyone!" train

...right...one thing that theoretically sets an elected representative apart from you or me is the notion that they won't vote away our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms because of some bad shit that went down last week

so have we assigned someone on K-Lo watch tonight?

it's all you dog

aaaaaand it looks like Coats and Paul win.

welcome back to Congress, Dan Burton!

write in aqua buddha everybody

d'oh! I wrote-in Xenu for one of the races on my ballot. I wish I would've remembered Aqua Buddha.

aqua buddha is by FAR my favorite thing that's happened throughout the whole campaign.

At the very least, I am very curious how a Rand Paul - let alone someone like Angle - will fare in the public eye, as opposed to the periphery where they've been hanging. I reckon neither will be able to successfully push, let alone achieve, anything close to their agenda, yet each seems the sort whose constituency would take compromise ... let's just say personally. Wonder if they'll regret all their pro-gun posturing when the angry shouters start showing up at their own functions.

it was kinda funny in a Spicoli sorta way

tbh I'm willing to risk it with Sharron Angle. If she wins over Reid, I'm looking forward to six straight years of hilarious shenanigans, or at least for as long as party leadership will let her go before shutting her down.

one thing that theoretically sets an elected representative apart from you or me is the notion that they won't vote away our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms because of some bad shit that went down last week

okay you are smarter than this

total aside: I voted for a Green Party candidate for state treasurer!

hilarious like michelle bachmann who.. well actually has quite a following. there really seems to be not much limit on how crazy you can be in the GOP these days. as long as you don't go full paladino

Bachmann is in the house. Angle will be in the senate, and the senate don't play.

okay you are smarter than this

lol ppl are always sayin' this kinda thing to me but the fact that I'm articulate, talented, forceful, & incredibly attractive doesn't mean I actually have the smarts to back any of that shit up

ha i dunno, it's like the housing market: no way is this the turn from the 'bottom' for the GOP. '10 midterms are gonna be wild as fuck

― goole, Wednesday, July 29, 2009 1:10 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

yay me

like I'm living proof that being able to neatly & accurately define "nuance" doesn't necessarily mean you're capable of grasping nuance

re: angle the thing is, does she have any serious agenda other than to act crazy. she did nothing in the legislature in nevada iirc. national GOP doesn't seem to have had much luck reigning in the crazy this year.

to briefly reprise the subject of americans not knowing their geography:

only today as i passed through the town of harper's ferry did i realize that john brown did not lead that slave revolt on an actual boat.

haha that's wonderful

in the midst of tea party madness, feels pretty good to be able to vote for a muslim and know he's gonna win

nb re Paladino: i think that he'd be TOTALLY electable in some non-Northeast Corridor (aka "elitist liberal") state.

Angle has us all in suspense. She's been the "I'll only give my positions once elected" candidate.

By contrast., about three in four expressed negative views about the federal government. Less than half said they wanted the government to do more to solve problems.

this is emblematic of where the real failure is - people have this deeply ingrained illusion that the federal government is the source of all their woes, that government cannot (and SHOULD not) even attempt to solve problems. everything will just work itself out! nice corporations will take care of us all! it's just the stupidest, saddest worldview imaginable.

it'll have to be reality-tested i'm afraid

this is a generation since 'government is the problem' became conventional wisdom. it's freaky to consider we're seeing the continued rippling effect of ronnie.

reading Supreme Power right now (thx Alfred!) and struck by the contrast that FDR continually made the argument - which much of the public readily and heartily endorsed - that the federal gov't was all that stood between the "common man" and total oppression/exploitation at the hands of moneyed interests. Like, this was a narrative that was just taken for granted, and the real pushback came from people who feared the fed over-extending its power. This is now completely reversed, no one understands (or even thinks it's possible) that the federal government can solve anything.

like, no one thinks the federal gov't protects the common man at all, and those that think it can and should are afraid that it doesn't even have the capacity to effectively do so.

tbf, very few candidates/elected officials offer any evidence to the contrary. xp

national GOP doesn't seem to have had much luck reigning in the crazy this year.

From a party that has Michael WHAT UP? Steele as its chairman, I'm assuming that they're not even remotely interested in doing so.